Texas’ ten top Republican and Democratic political money people

Texans have donated nearly $300 million this year to candidates, political parties, political committees and the new wave of Super PACs spawned by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision — 78 percent of it to Republican or conservative causes, according to a Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News analysis of Federal Election Commission data. Forty percent of the Lone Star State’s campaign contributions have left the state, as Texans try to influence the presidential election and the battle for control of Congress.

Who are the the Texans at the center of the two parties’ fundraising machinery?

For Republicans, the most prolific donors are successful business executives strongly committed to conservative ideological causes or GOP control of Washington. “These are people care greatly about liberty and the direction of the country,” said Chris Elam, deputy executive director of the Republican Party of Texas.

For Democrats, the top Texas money people are wealthy lawyers and politically minded professionals.

“I’m in the top 1 percent,” said Houston attorney Steve Mostyn. “It’s not going to hurt me to pay a little more in taxes and I’m happy to do it because it lifts the country.”

Here is a rundown on each party’s ten most influential Texas money people:

Republicans

The conservative true believer

1. Harold Simmons (Dallas)

In 1960 the son of two Texas teachers bought a small pharmacy on Hillcrest Ave. in Dallas, across the street from Southern Methodist University, for $100,000. Six decades later, his investments in energy, metals, waste management and other ventures are worth more than $9 billion. Strongly ideological, the Dallas industrialist has donated liberally to conservative causes for decades, including the Media Research Center, which monitors liberal media bias, legal defense funds for Iran-Contra scandal figures Oliver North and John Poindexter, and the Swift Boat attacks on 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

This year, Simmons, his wife Annette and his company, Contran, have given more than $18 million to conservative Super PACs — second in the nation behind only Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Simmons has bankrolled American Crossroads, George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove’s brainchild, to the tune of $13 million. And unlike many GOP donors, he’s spread his money around in the presidential race, giving more than $3 million to Super PACs affiliated with Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich. His wife added $1.2 million to Rick Santorum’s Red White and Blue Fund.

Republicans’ Mister Reliable

2. Bob Perry (Houston)

Texas’ most prolific Republican contributor also is one of the nation’s most generous political donors with about $16 million spent this election cycle. The Houston home builder has given $8 million to Romney’s Super PAC, $6.5 million to Rove’s American Crossroads and a cool million dollars to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Super PAC dedicated to protecting the GOP majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. He chipped in another $100,000 to help out Rick Perry’s Super PAC named “Make Us Great Again.”

The Super PAC convert

3. Robert Rowling (Irving)

The president and CEO of TRT Holdings, owner of Gold’s Gyms and Omni Hotels, was not one of the state’s most prominent Republican contributors until the Super PAC era dawned in 2010. He has spent more than $4.1 million during the current campaign, with the lion’s share going to American Crossroads. Other favorite political causes have included the Texas Conservatives Fund, which aided the Senate campaign of Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, led by Texas Sen. John Cornyn.

The first family of Texas political funding

4. Harlan R. Crow (Dallas)
5. Trammell S. Crow (Dallas)

Politics is a family affair for the Crows of Dallas, who turned a Dallas real estate development business into a national empire over four decades. Harlan R. and Trammell S. Crow lead the second generation of the first family of Texas Republican donors. Thus far, they have contributed more than $3 million to influence the 2012 election, individually and through Crow Holdings.

Harlan, the CEO of Crow Holdings, is prominent in national conservative circles as a member of the founders’ committee of the Club for Growth and a trustee of the American Enterprise Institute. In addition to his Super PAC involvement, Harlan Crow is backing endangered GOP incumbents such as Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown and Nevada Sen. Dean Heller. He’s also a leading donor to old-fashioned political committees, including the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Trammell S. Crow, Harlan’s younger brother and president of the Crow Family Foundation, pitched in a half-million to Mitt Romney’s “Restore Our Future” Super PAC. More than 90 percent of his money has gone to out-of-state candidates and committees, including moderate figures such as retiring Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe and 2012 presidential candidate Jon Huntsman.

The libertarian upstart

6. John Ramsey (Austin)

The 22-year-old college senior, an economics and finance major at Stephen F. Austin State University, has poured $2.8 million of his own money into the current campaign. Almost all of it has gone to his new Super PAC, Liberty for All, which is dedicated to electing libertarian-minded Americans to Congress. “I’m sick and tired of old people lecturing to young people that we are the future leaders,” said Liberty for All co-founder Preston Bates, 23, a senior economics major at University of Louisville. “Young people can be leaders as soon as they want to be. John and I are living examples of that.”

Ramsey personally has contributed to 2012 presidential hopeful Ron Paul and Kurt Bills, the Paul-backed libertarian who won the GOP Senate nomination in Minnesota. “The liberty movement is made up of a lot of young people for a number of reasons,” he said. “Young people will be saddled with this economic problem and we’ll be the ones to repay the debt. Young people are sick and tired of the wars going on — the war overseas…the war on drugs.”

Romney’s man in Texas

7. L.E. Simmons (Houston)

Mitt Romney’s point man in Texas runs a Houston private equity firm. L.E. Simmons, like Romney a member of the Mormon church, is Romney’s Texas finance chairman, helping the Republican presidential nominee raise more than $32 million in the Lone Star State this year. And he has access to the candidate’s inner circle: At the Republican National Convention, Simmons asked Texas GOP chairman Steve Munisteri if he’d like a member of the Romney family to speak to the Texas delegation. Within a day, he had delivered the candidate’s son, Tagg, to speak to Lone Star Republicans.

The energy giant’s CEO

8. Rex Tillerson (Bartonville)

The CEO of Irving-based ExxonMobil co-hosted a fund-raising luncheon for Romney at the Houstonian Hotel in August that capped off a $7 million in a one-day swing through Texas energy centers in August. Though his name lends prestige to the candidates he supports, he’s not one of the biggest cash contributors. Still, Tillerson has given to prominent Republicans across the country, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton and House Budget Committee Paul Ryan.

The outspoken maverick

9. Clayton Williams (Midland)

What you see is what you get with Claytie Williams, the 81-year-old Midland oilman and former 1990 Republican gubernatorial candidate. He made headlines earlier this year when he posted posted signs outside of his ClayDesta Plaza that declared, “I built this business. Obama can kiss my Rig.” While Williams raises more money than he gives — Romney has vacuumed up $1.4 million in Midland-Odessa — he has donated this year to Republican party-building efforts in states as diverse as Oklahoma, Vermont, Idaho and Massachusetts.

10. The self-funder

David Dewhurst (Houston)

David Dewhurst invested about $20 million of his personal fortune — he founded Falcon Seaboard, a diversified energy and investments company — on an unsuccessful race for the U.S. Senate. That’s the largest personal investment of any Texas candidate this year. Dewhurst’s consolation prize: The former Air Force, CIA and State Department officer is still the state’s lieutenant governor and will wield significant power when the Texas Legislature reconvenes in January 2013.

Democrats

The trial lawyers

1. Steven Mostyn (Houston)
2. Amber Anderson (Houston)

This husband and wife are the biggest Democratic Super PAC donors in the state. Mostyn, the president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, and his wife, Amber Anderson, who also is a Houston trial lawyer, have donated more than $3.3 million to four committees, including $2 million to the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action, $1 million to the Democrats’ House Majority PAC, $200,000 to Planned Parenthood Votes and $125,000 to the anti-Perry Texans for America’s Future. Anderson also has donated to the campaigns of four Democratic women running for the Senate: Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Shelley Berkley of Nevada.

While Mostyn was the largest funder of Texas Democrats in 2010, he is not shy about intervening in Republican primaries. He funneled at least $900,000 into a failed attempt to stop Texas state Rep. Larry Taylor of Friendswood from winning a 2012 Republican state senate primary. Taylor, who runs an insurance agency, has clashed with Mostyn over hurricane-related claims and legal reform issues.

Mostyn says he’s not a fan of the system he has mastered. “I think Super PACs should be eliminated,” he said. “It’s kind of an irony I give to Super PACs because I want to see them eliminated.” So why does he give so much money to them? “You’ve got to at least give Democratic candidates enough money to respond,” he said.

Obama’s top Texas bundlers

3. Lynn Meredith (Austin)
4. Tom Meredith (Austin)

This Austin power couple has raised more money for President Obama than anyone else in Texas. After pledging to raise $500,000 each for the president’s re-election, they’ve both already topped the $1 million mark. Tom Meredith, a former chief financial officer at Dell, now runs Meritage Capital, an Austin investment firm that specializes in multi-manager hedge funds. Lynn, a former teacher, runs Meredith Family Investments and the family’s charitable foundation. They met as freshman at Saint Francis University and have been married for forty years. They hosted a fund-raiser for the Obama Victory Fund 2012 in July, where for $35,800 a supporter could get dinner, a chance to meet the president and a photo with Obama. How close are they to the commander-in-chief? “These guys have been there since the beginning,” he said at their home. “They were there in some of my first events in Texas, first events of my presidential campaign. They have been stalwart friends for many years now.”

Female fundraising champion

5. Ellen Susman (Houston)

At $1.1 million, Houston television journalist Ellen Susman has raised more money for President Obama than any other woman in Texas. “This is an incredibly crucial election more because it is going to determine what kind of Supreme Court justices we’ve put in place,” said Susman, star of the PBS series “Balancing Your Life with Ellen Susman.” Susman and her lawyer husband Stephen have given more than $1.1 million to Democratic causes since 1990. This year, they are focusing on races that could shape the future of the Supreme Court: the presidential election and the battle for the Senate. “If Romney is elected he will appoint one to three justices that are just like (Samuel A.) Alito and (Antonin) Scalia, which could change jurisprudence in the country for a century — not a decade, not a generation, a century,” said Stephen Susman. Just 1 percent of the Susmans’ 2012 donations have gone to Texas candidates. “In Texas,” said Stephen Susman, “supporting a Democrat is throwing your money away, basically.”

Obama’s top Latino fundraiser

6. Henry Muñoz III (San Antonio)

The San Antonio architect, a fixture in the Alamo City’s culture scene, is also a key political money person. This year, he has become the nation’s most prolific Latino fundraiser for President Obama. Already, he has bundled more than $310,640, largely in Texas’ Mexican-American community. Gov. Ann Richards appointed him first minority ever to serve as a Texas transportation commission, and he remains committed to progress for the Latino community. “There is a time for protest and a time for diplomacy, and there’s a time for access.” he says. “It’s really important for the Latino community of the United States to have had the ability to do it all.”

The Democratic Bass Brother

7. Robert Bass (Fort Worth)

Robert Bass is not afraid to break away from the pack — his family PAC, that is. While the billionaire Fort Worth oil tycoon’s brothers Edward, Sid and Lee have directed Bass Brothers Enterprises political action committee money to Republicans, Robert Bass and his wife Anne have contributed about $400,000 this year to Democratic candidates, committees and Super PACs. Their favorite political cause: the Majority PAC, designed to protect the Democrats’ slim Senate majority.

The party builder

8. Matt Angle (Washington, D.C.)

A former congressional aide and redistricting expert, Matt Angle is committed to rebuilding the Democratic Party from the shambles of recent election setbacks and Republican redistricting efforts. His Texas Democratic Trust, founded by the late Dallas trial lawyer Fred Baron in 2005, has poured some $12 million into Texas legislative and congressional races in the past seven years. Angle, the former chief of staff to ex-Rep. Martin Frost of Dallas, also founded the Lone Star Project, a federal political action committee that focuses on allegations of Texas Republican scandal, mismanagement and extremism. “One-party Republican control has failed Texas voters and threatens the future of our state,” said Angle. “I try very hard to use facts to expose their failure and arrogance. They are doing real damage to Texans now and especially to the next generation of Texans.”

A political powerhouse in her own right

9. Lisa Blue Baron (Dallas)

Lisa Blue Baron has a certain style. For her 60th birthday party last year, guests from the worlds of politics and high society danced to the live music of Don Henley and ZZ Top at her posh Preston Hollow manor. The Dallas lawyer and her late husband, Fred Baron, donated millions of dollars and resources including their private jet to the presidential candidacies of John Edwards, which ultimately ensnared Fred Baron in a scandal involving payouts to Edwards’ mistress. Even after Fred Baron’s death in 2008, Lisa has remained politically active, contributing to the Democratic National Committee, the Texas Democratic Party and a Democratic Super PAC attempting to regain a House majority. She has a particular interest in Democrats maintaining control of the Senate this year, having donated to a dozen Democratic nominees.

The self-funder

10. David Alameel

David Alameel made millions on his dental clinics and lost more than $4 million of it in a self-funded campaign for the new 33rd Congressional District in Dallas-Fort Worth. Despite spending more of his own money than any other Texas Democrat this year, he finished with 11 percent of the vote. The self-made millionaire — who started out as a gas station attendant and migrant farm worker in California and ended up a dentist and entrepreneur in Dallas — pledges that his North Texas Leadership PAC will continue to support Democratic candidates in his home state and beyond. This year, he has contributed $60,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committees and $500,000 to Majority PAC, which is aiding Democratic House candidates across the country.